Sunland Absurdity

Aug 27, 2016

Soheil Abedian recently told Chanel 9 reporters, "the number of people who are against it (the Mariner towers proposal), you can count them on the fingers of your hand."

The absurdity of this remark is self-evident, especially given that the Southport Yacht Club was standing-room only that same day with hundreds and hundreds of people from all demographic loudly protesting his proposal. Add to this the many thousands city-wide who do not want highrise on The Spit and ... well it's easy to see who sees the world with the blinkers on.

Now it appears, according to this Brisbane Times report, that Mr Abedian is putting forth a veiled threat against the comminity and council that he will build something undesirable on purpose if he does not get his council approval for his disproportionate and controversial towers - towers that will

a) resume a large chunk of the public broadwater and turn it into private realestate for himselfb) will without question shatter the height limits (set an imovable legal precedent) on The Spit allowing more and more towers to be built on many other sitesc) will deliver a traffic nightmare that will grind Main Beach and The Spit to a halt at least twice a day, preventing access to locals and visitorsd) devastate the skyline of the city and push the concrete jungle northwarde) put a private residential enclave right in the middle of the Crown public land (leasehold) low-density precinctf) threaten the very diverse, rich and established culture of The Spit and surrounding area, whilst trying to replace it with a plastic, manufactured, and by all measure fake, cultural space that does not conform to existing culture and community values for that area

We already have an aquarium on The Spit, it has nearly 500 species of marine life, is accessible, real, well used and is completely free to not only visit, but enter as well.Main Beach where shadows will encroach if Sunland get their way

We already have a rich culture of recreation, industry, sport, family, tourism and lifestyle in the entire area and it is absurd to think that one family - one vested developer - can come in over the top to install their own manufactured idealism and claims of culture on top of it.

These towers are NOT UNIQUE! And one look at the proposed Toowong towers in Brisbane by the same developer and architect (let alone the many others almost the same around the world) quickly demonstrates that these towers are a just a cardboard pop-out of the same style and design.

The Spit has culture, it has marine life, it has hotels and it has history - based on "merit", this development has none to offer and anything else is just smoke and mirrors people.